Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1114

1042 prosperous farmer and a very influential citizen; and the first of the line in America was his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Miller, born near Londonderry, Ireland, about 1693, who came to America and made his home in Maryland. Thomas Cecil Miller was reared and educated in his native county, and in his nineteenth year responded heartily to the call of his State in 1861. He came to Lynchburg in April to join the Home Guards, and, finding the company had gone to Richmond, followed to that city and enlisted as a private. He served in the battles of Blackburn's Ford, First Manassas, Dranesville, Williamsburg, Seven Pines and Frayser's Farm, in the latter action receiving a serious wound in the right shoulder. He was captured by the enemy, but left in a field hospital, and a few days later he was sent to Richmond, and thence to Lynchburg, where he remained in hospital for two or three months. The injury was of such a serious nature as to permanently deprive him of the use of his right arm, and he could not return to duty on the field. He served on hospital duty at Charlottesville several months, and then attended the university of Virginia. At the close of the war he was paroled at Lynchburg, and since then he has been engaged in the profession of teaching, since 1871 having been thus occupied at Lynchburg. He was married, October 23, 1873, at Chatham, Va., to Mary Hunt Coleman, who died, leaving four children: Roberta Cecil, Claude Hamilton, Sallie Hunt and George Coleman Cecil. His second marriage occurred in 1890, to Helen Gregory.

Major William Henry Miller, since 1880 officially connected with the United States pension office, at Washington, is a native of Virginia, and a veteran of the Confederate States provisional army. He was born in Botetourt county in 1833, but his family removed during his infancy to Madison county and subsequently to Shenandoah county, where he spent his youth mainly and was educated until he was prepared to enter Hampden-Sidney college. While he was a student there the war of the Confederacy broke out and he entered a company organized among the students, under the command of Dr. J. N. Atkinson, president of the institution. He held the rank of second sergeant of this company of chivalrous young Virginians, and with it was mustered into the service in the Twentieth Virginia regiment of infantry. He served with this regiment during the early days of 1861, and participated in the campaign in West Virginia where McClellan and Lee were first pitted against each other. At the battle of Rich Mountain, in the summer of that year, he was captured, and paroled on the field by General McClellan. Subsequently he observed his parole until exchanged in August, 1862, when he returned to the service. The Twentieth regiment had meanwhile been disbanded, and he re-enlisted as second sergeant of the Twenty-fifth Virginia cavalry. In this capacity he remained with the regiment until January, 1863, when he was appointed regimental quartermaster, with the rank of captain. In the following July, he was promoted brigade quartermaster, with the rank of major, and in this capacity served during the remainder of the war. He participated in the battles of Rich Mountain, W. Va., Perryville, Lexington, Frankfort and Maysville, Ky., Blackwater, Va., Chickamauga, McMinnville and Franklin, Tenn., and at Petersburg served in the trenches until the surrender.